Day 29 Interesting observation

Hi all,

It’s been awhile, so I thought I would check in. I’m still doing well; about 80 percent better from where I was when I first started reading Sarno. I still have mental pain associations with sitting — on my couch, in my bed and on the subway — but I’m doing my best to not let that get to me and am hopeful it’ll go away with time.

I had an interesting realization in the past couple days. Last weekend, on consecutive nights, I felt intense pain on the left side of my neck, just like I’d felt for the past 7 years, while in crowded bars. I decided to not agonize over it, and both times, it went away when I got home. Then, a couple days later, I felt the same pain in a crowded area at a work event (my job requires me to approach people and ask them questions).

I’ve had social anxiety as long as I can remember, and so I imagine the trend here is being in a tight social space where my mind is anxious about being perceived by other people.

My first instinct upon picking up on this trend was to try to solve it. But that’s how the old Me would approach this. I’m choosing to be curiously detached about it. Awareness is an important first step in breaking any sort of trend, and so I’m just going to point out this pattern to myself without trying to fix it. We’ll see how it goes.

 

Thank you! Appreciate the emphasis. That’s good point to keep in mind.